AEW Full Gear on B/R Live

Pops & Botches: AEW Full Gear 2020

AEW Full Gear News Pops & Botches

 

POP: Omega vs. Hangman

I am a fan of hokey nonsense, and as such, the Cleaner Gals pop me every time. Tonight they’re looking great as always in their throwback 80’s workout gear. 

Great start to the match as the action is a little sloppy. A lot of shoving and slipping, showcasing the emotional vulnerability of the former tag partners. They solidify their styles quick, for quick brutal chops, former friends desperate to hurt each other.

The small detail to note is that both wrestlers continuously cut off the other’s offense, as the two know former partners know each other all too-well. Omega goes for the tope, only for Hangman to cut him off before the leap. Kenny jumps to the top turnbuckle and, before he can even get his feet planted, Hangman is up top with him holding him back.

I may be reaching here, but the excess of chops to the chest could be inflicting heartbreak? Sometimes a chop is just a chop. And sometimes it is emotional warfare amongst video game fanatic and a focused yeehaw man.

When Omega takes control, he’s sure to be less reactive. Hangman’s offense is mainly capitalizing on knowing Omega so well, cutting Kenny off before he can follow through. Kenny, on the other hand, is breaking out the hits. The V-triggers, the fireman’s carry kip-up to the turnbuckle, the tope con hilo. Hangman is wrestling like he’s scouted his partner, and Kenny is wrestling like he’s proving he’s his own man. 

It’s all about showing himself as the singles star that don’t need no stinkin’ cowboy to get by, no matter how much he loves him. He went out to forget they were together, all that time, he was taking him for granted… Cue Good Charlotte’s “Dance Floor Anthem” 

Put up your hands, I don’t want to be in a tag team partnership, I don’t want to be in a tag team partnership.

The end sees both men trading blows and counters and pin attempts. But after blocking the Buckshot lariat and countering a boot to the V-trigger, Omega seals the deal with the One Winged Angel.

While Page positioned himself entirely in relation to Kenny, Omega won by embracing embracing his individuality so thoroughly, they really should’ve played “All The Single Ladies” as his exit music.

He’d been afraid and petrified without the cowboy at his side, but he grew strong and learned how to get along.

So now we move to the next chapter in a nearly 18 month storyline. Kenny Omega entered the womb of AEW as the best bout machine, the darling of the Indies and Japan. But in the time since, he’s (by design of course) never lived up to that original potential in AEW.

He’s been a member of the Elite and he had a great run with Hangman as AEW’s 2nd tag champs, but we have not seen the 6-star Tokyo Dome destroyer that took on Okada yet in Daily’s Plaza in Jacksonville.

Now that he’s firmly shed the snakeskin boots of his former partner and probably lover (BECAUSE WRESTLING AND ROMANCE ARE MORE THAN JUST A SHORTLY LIVED JAPAN FED IN OMEGA’S HEART), we see the promised King Cleaner emerging from the damaged self-doubting soul Omega of the last few months.

POP: Orange Cassidy vs. John 4 Silver

Thought: should FTR ever split, Cash Wheeler should join Dark Order and also claim number 4. Why? Solely for a super dumb single-use pop introducing “The tag team of John 4 Silver and Cash 4 Gold”.

Short king John Silver is on a roll here with his fierce chihuahua energy. Early on he commits the ultimate sin of tearing out Orange Cassidy’s pockets and chucking them to the crowd.  What a damn heel, that’s like tearing off the Rock’s eyebrows: it doesn’t destroy his offense, but it snatches a certain something the man NEEDS to WIN.

This is something I love about AEW: a very loose class categorization. Last PPV, Orange Cassidy was fighting all-time living legend Chris Jericho. Now? He’s fighting the 4th least important member of the second most important stable.  And it’s great!! We don’t need to see OC fight Jericho for 6 months of 50/50 booking!

We know Silver’s not gonna win. BUT…Silver is busting his ass in here so thoroughly, that never feels like a certainty. Silver is chucking OC around like a man twice his size, showing oodles of charisma.

OC eventually speeds up and cares barely enough to eke out the win, but he loses nothing in the process, and Silver gains plenty by showing off his single skills and breaking from the tag doldrums. Give him a few months, and he’ll be having his own “heartbroken tag partners collide” storyline with Number 10, featuring a far cheaper to license hair metal power ballad. Let’s say…”House of Pain”, by Faster Pussycat.  (Look it up. Parental neglect has never been cheesier than that music video.)

POP: Cody vs. Darby Allin

Cody: One of those guys we spend ten years saying they’re gonna be the future. Those are the worst fucking type of wrestlers

Darby feels nobody ever believed in him which is why he cut his wrist and blacked his eyes and learned to skateboard to prove em wrong.

I love Cody’s angle on this. Not only is it not the usual, “He thinks he’s great! But he’s not! I am the one who is great!” He is actively dismantling Darby’s motivation. Darby needs to believe he’s the underdog, that Cody is underhanded and held him down, that SOCIETY doesn’t want somebody like him. It’s all bullshit, says Cody. It’s a story Darby is telling himself. How often do you see a heel play that card? “No, you are fully capable of beating me, nobody is holding you back. But you rely on your victimhood status to cover every personal failure. 

You COULD be the face of this company. But you won’t, because you’re too busy making excuses why you aren’t ALREADY THE FACE OF THIS COMPANY.” God damn, this may be the best modern update of “Building up your opponent” I’ve seen.

The only caveat I have is that Darby hasn’t been responding to that accusation. It is merely a two-time volley. Darby yells, “You don’t understand me jock!” Cody returns, “Nah dude, we all like you fine. Maybe practice more and earn it.” And then no retort from Darby.  Now, this may very well be the story beat, and Darby is isn’t ready to face that part, but for now it’s a bit awkward to not follow through.

MIKE CHIODA!

Also in the pre-match promo, I made a reference to Jackass re: Darby’s hopping a car in the video, COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS that Steve-O himself appeared in the promo.  My bad, wrestling fan.  I am heartily sorry for having offended thee.

BRUTAL spot early on, Cody nails a hammerlock, picks Allin up from behind, and shitcans him onto the ramp. I feel like we as wrestling fans forget how brutal the simple art of bumping is. As a grizzled young vet who has had precisely one (1) match ever, just falling with force from your feet to your back is a harrowing experience.

You need to rotate properly, land flat, tuck your chin, and even in the best circumstance, it’s hurts like a motherf*c*k*er. To add that elevation and on an unpadded surface? Dude’s gonna be pissing blood in the morning, all for one early pop in a 30 minute match that most will forget within 30 seconds of viewing it. Appreciate every bump, kids. These crazy men in spandex are sacrificing a lot to make you care.

Allin shows a lot of explosiveness in this match. When he gets the momentum he attacks with urgency, like a wounded animal who knows he’s only getting one swipe to take out his predator’s throat and survive. But Cody is right. Darby has all the moxie, all the shoulder chips, all the piss and vinegar.

But it’s not enough. Every desperation offense is met by a neutralization by the older, wiser, better veteran. Darby is just not there yet, and he’s gotta deal with his own bullshit before he can get there. 

The one victory Allin does get here is a big one: He’s earned Cody’s respect. This is also interesting as he already had Cody’s respect. Cody did nothing but talk him up in the lead up. He’s a great kid with a lot of potential, but that potential ain’t there yet. But after Cody got pushed to frustration several times to put the little guy down, he clearly appreciated just how much the kid is fighting and………………….

……..and then Darby Allin got the pin…………

So, as you may be able to tell, I try to write these articles up as I watch them unfold. This ain’t no gimmick, I 100% thought this was the way the match, and the greater story, would unfold.

And God dammit…they got me good. Darby got the pin, and he’s the new TNT champ.  Wowza.  Where does this go from here? Does Darby face his own excuses now that he has to live up to the TNT championship every week? Was Cody the one who was wrong all along, full of his own shit? The whole angle is flipped on it’s head and I love it.

Oh good, here’s Taz to ruin the good moment! He pops out to tell these two moes to get lost, only for Cage and Starks to come out and pick the bones! What a deliciously dickish way to end a great feel-good moment, reminding us of Starks’ great rivalry with Darby a few weeks back.

There’s so many ways for this to go: Darby as weekly champion, Cody as vet that’s lost his confidence, “strange bedfellows” tag team forced to take on Team Taz. Just wonderful pro wrestling storytelling overall, I couldn’t be happier with it.

POP: Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose

Check out Shida’s suspender skirt! Very neat look, I’m sure it’s referencing some deep-cut pop culture character I’ve never heard of, but nice nonetheless.

Some criticized the lack of build-up for this match, as it only started roughly last week. It was enough of a complaint that Tony Khan addressed it in the press conference after the show, saying he needed to do better. Cody gave a less diplomatic response, saying, “Not every match needs to be War and Peace.” Which, I can agree with to an extent, but it rings a little hollow when even the bossman acknowledges it.

I’m very curious what’s happening with the women’s division right now. It almost seems like they were aiming for a big feud regarding NWA’s women’s championship, only for that to get shitcanned when Thunder Rosa suddenly lost and seemed to be WWE bound (further-FURTHER complicated by the Buy-In where Rosa showed up post-match to stare down Serena Deeb for the belt, seemingly indicating she’s not going to WWE….it’s confusing), try a quick pivot back to their OWN women’s belt, and now pivoting back before the actual match to the NWA championship. It’s a sloppy mess.

So where do we stand? Well, we get a pretty great match out of it regardless. Nyla beats the hell off of/out of Shida, doing exceptional work to her leg throughout the match. This eliminates Shida’s strongest weapons and finishers. Nyla’s also dominant in the division, hitting impact spots that just aren’t as impressive from the smaller wrestlers in the division.

Honestly, the story we get is more than satisfactory in just the week of buildup. Part of that is just the characters these two already have. Nyla is dominant and overconfident; Shida is the scrappy underdog babyface. This makes such natural story dynamics it doesn’t much else. Nyla tears Shida down, has her dead to rights on a pin, and yanks Shida up before 3 to inflict more damage with Shida’s own finisher. How does Shida respond? By kicking out at one, chucking Nyla off the tope rope, and returning her taunts. Great character based wrestling.

It unfortunately gets a little sloppy at the end. There’s a lot of ref Aubrey Edwards preventing Vickie’s interference. Nyla is gassed and not running her swiftest, spending the bulk of the end of the match eating repeated knees to the face.

Even Shida feels a little less crisp and a little more beaten down at the end. It doesn’t tarnish the match overall I’d say, and still feels earned when Shida gets the win. They just need to focus a little more on the AEW women’s division and maybe not as much an unstable lineup for a different company.

Controversial BOTCH: FTR vs. Young Bucks

Finally we get to THE match that’s been set up for years. As you all know, FTR and the Bucks have been teasing a dream match for years, even way back when the Revival was pissing their pants on WWE TV. The two best tag teams in the world, the flippy-est vs the fist-iest. Once FTR arrived in AEW, we all knew it was only a matter of time until before they met. The Bucks took a bit of a side story superkicking every NPC in the company, but eventually rerouted to make the match for today, vowing that if they lost this championship opportunity, they would never challenge for them again.

Unfortunately, this is the first mistake in the whole endeavor. We just had Cody vow to never again challenge for the AEW title within the last year. He lost, and AEW had to create a whole other title for him to mitigate those circumstances. This match REALLY did not need these stakes, because it takes a lot of the fun out of it. Everyone assumes this means the Bucks are winning. Yet even if they lose, it still hampers the whole match, because it throws in an assumption early on, that makes it impossible to view the match through any other lens than, “The Bucks are winning.”

This is only a 2 year old company for Christ’s sake! We do NOT need a bunch of Executive Vice Presidents’ of the company declaring, “I will NEVER challenge for the belts again if I don’t get them on my first attempt!” before their goddamn 401k has even kicked in yet.

The match itself is pretty good, though I have a feeling I liked it less than others might. To the fault of nobody but the federal government, it’s hard not to think this would’ve more enjoyable in front of a full crowd. There’s some great work and storytelling here, especially a wrench in FTR’s plan early on.

Their safe style backfires early, when Dash goes for a punch on the outside, only for a Buck to duck and Dash to smash his hand against the post with a satisfying BONG sound echoing out. The injured bleeding fist (possibly a first time ever knuckle blading?) becomes part of the story, and as they work the injured hand, the Bucks deal with their own leg issues. This leads to both teams having to improvise and take each others style a bit. FTR gets flippier, the Bucks get fistier.

Speaking of stealing each other’s styles, you will also see possibly every single major tag team finisher in this match. Trying very much to be the “History of Dance” of tag team wrestling, we see shoutouts to Team DIY, the Steiners, the Hart Foundation, the Dudley Boyz, the Hardys. Hell, we even see a callback to the Revival holding hands to avoid tapping out against DIY.

I may be in the minority here guys, but…the longer it goes on, the less I’m liking this match. There’s a few things at play here.

  1. The stipulation alone really does hurt the enjoyment of the action, as it feels the end result has been weighted from the start.
  2. At 30 minutes bell to bell (not counting more than 10 extra minutes of video packages and pageantry before and after the match), it just feels too long. Which would not be as much an issue if not for…
  3. It feels like they’re over insisting, “THIS IS THE GREATEST TAG MATCH EVER AND A CULMINATION OF ALL TAG TEAM WRESTLING”, and it just doesn’t really get there. The multiple tag references and the stipulation really do pull down an otherwise good-to-great match by telling you from jump how great it is going to be. Just have the goddamn match boys and stop telling me how to feel about it.

So the Bucks finally win the belts after FTR get a little too flippy for their own good, and…I just don’t care. I find it hard to be super stoked that the Bucks FINALLY WON THE BELTS!…of the company they’re executive VPs of…after not competing for the belts all that much…in a company less than two years old…from the big acquisitions that have only been here and holding the belts for a few months…telegraphing the win from the very beginning with the dumb stipulation…all along the way doing everything but looking to the camera and exclaiming “THIS IS WHAT TAG TEAM WRESTLING IS ALL ABOUT!”

The ending is more intriguing than the entire match, when a far better storyline bleeds into the ring. Kenny comes out to celebrate with the Bucks, and in the background tunnel we see a dejected Hangman, wanting to join in and celebrate, but knowing he’s too far gone from the Elite to indulge in the festivities.

POP: Sammy Guevara vs. Matt Hardy

It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the Hardy compound, and it feels nice to see Sammy driving his own custom golf cart from Jacksonville all the way to North Carolina. (Thing must have a hell of a battery on it)

Vanguard 1 meets him at the gate and projects a hologram Hardy before remotely disabling the golf cart. Matt Hardy then runs the cart over with his monster truck, “The Strait Jacket”. (Now that’s what I call a squash job!) Sammy does a moonsault off of the Monster Truck tire! (My computer is attempting to spellcheck “moonsault”, and I feel like that’s their problem, not mine).

We’re gonna be getting a lot of suplexes onto fallen pine needles in this match. 

Sammy gets a scepter to the breadbasket, which commentary informs us is the scepter of Mephistopheles, which of course does 30+ATK and works across multiple parties when used as an item. 

Of all the ghouls and ghosts on the Hardy compound, the strangest thing is the official size wrestling ring with event-specific ring skirt. That sure was nice of Tony Khan to send up some guys to make sure Hardy’s magical mysterious wizard compound has its branding synergy maximized.

When Santana and Ortiz arrive (no doubt having canoed from Jacksonville to North Carolina), Hardy calls Private Party via walkie talkie hidden beneath the ring. AND HERE COME THE FIREWORKS. Thanks God North Carolina still sells fireworks to anyone regardless of age. Hardy and Guevara fire roman candles at each other before Sammy slips in the mud and roles around like it’s Woodstock. 

Fucking bonkers. Matt threatens to threw Sammy into lake of Reincarnation, only to be confronted by a masked figure that is holding the Hurricane hostage. The masked figure is…GANGREL! My old e-fed character! He says he was Sammy’s first mentor, and Gangrel would take him any day over Matt. Private Party chases he and Sammy off while Matt frees Greg Helms. Helms asks what the wait was, he’s been stuck there for 2 years! Hardy replies, “Long Term Storytelling” and “I had to wait to get to AEW to finish this.”

Guevara interrupts and throws Hurricane into the Lake, asking, “What’s a hero, to a GOD!? A Spanish God!”

Helms reemerges as a backstage interviewer, only to get chucked back into the lake. Hurricane reemerges (JR: “Well, he was always a good swimmer.”)

They all get back to the ring to continue an essentially 8 man free for all. Sammy pursues Hardy into the darkness of the woods. HARDY TRICKED HIM! Sammy has been lured into the Dome of Deletion (which, to the untrained eye, might appear as a garage converted into a rumpus room…DON’T BE FOOLED) and the doors shut him inside with hardy and the Ref.

The dome seems to hinder more than help Hardy at first. Sammy smacks him with a loosened turnbuckle, chokes him into a trance with the rope, and dives off a ladder to to put Hardy through a table. Hardy kicks out and throws Hardy through a table to the outside, where a nice edit reveals some thankfully fake blood that is otherwise seemingly a repeat of Hardy scrambling his brains in the concession stand brawl from the last PPV. 

Hardy continues with the callbacks, putting Sammy Down with big chairshots to the back of the head. He calls in Private Party to help him dump Sammy into a trash can, load him into the back Senor Benjamins truck, and have him shipped out to be buried. The faces celebrate in a hail of fireworks!

Yeah, there was a LOT of stuff happening in this match, but I felt it mostly worked. The stuff with Hurricane went over my head even, but I haven’t exactly been rewatching Hardy compound matches to make sure I was up to date for the sequel.

AEW’s been doing great throwing in a few of these pre-recorded matches during the Covid crisis, and I hope they continue it even after the danger subsides and the crowds return. As great as your performers can be, it is still a little difficult to just stare at the same static wrestling ring for close to 4 hours, and the change of scenery helps break up the monotony of a long show.

It’s also a pleasure to see the return of the Hardy Compound as it’s own character to the world of professional wrestling. We all recall that WWE got annoyed at TNA getting any positive press, so they immediately rehired the Hardys and began pissing on their hard work with a watered down version of the Hardy extended universe.

Now that we’ve seen the return of Vanguard 1 (who I still think should’ve accepted that Inner Circle membership offer. Think of the perks V1!) and Señor Benjamin and the Lake of Reincarnation, here’s hoping we can continue the fun weirdness of this rasslin’ family.

POP: Jericho vs. MJF

There’s such a fun mirror image Looper story with these two. MJF is such a perfect distillation of early WCW Jericho’s snotty attitude, that it really does feel like he’s fighting his future self. The only downside being that Jericho is here being portrayed by a ripe sweating tomato with a blonde wig.

The guy is 50 years old now, and I don’t like ragging on him, seeing as how his body at 50 is the same as most classic era wrestlers were in there late 20s. (Harley Race with six-pack abs would just be horrifying and abomination unto the lord.) But it’s getting harder to not notice that he may be hitting the bubbly a bit more than the treadmill. Brock Lesnar would say Jericho looked a bit flush.

I’d put this match in direct contrast to the Bucks match, in that it does so much more with so much less:

Both these guys are dicks.

MJF wants to be a dick together.

Jericho says beat me and we can be dicks together.

They then proceed to be dicks to each other in the ring for 20 minutes, with various slapping and toying with each other, until…

Dick 1 (MJF) tries to do something dickish (use the Diamond ring to cheat) until…

Dick 2 (Jericho) gets the bat from Hager, and Dick 1 (again, MJF) feigns getting hit with the bat to trick ref Aubrey into almost DQing Dick 2…

Then rolling up Dick 2 (rollups being the most dickish form of pin) for the (dickish) win!

The heel vs. heel dynamic works super well. MJF has beaten his future self, and now established a time paradox that will allow them to get into authoritative heels shenanigans together.

ALSO, good move by AEW to sequester 3/5 of the Inner Circle to the Hardy match, where they can’t make their displeasure known or interfere. Small things that make the payoff all the sweeter to see Jericho shake MJF’s hand and welcome him home to the Inner Circle!

…I give it six weeks…

POP: The Deposed King Edward

The main event and my personal most anticipated match of the evening! Eddie Kingston attempts to justify all his scars, all his pain, and all his trauma, by taking down the friend who left him behind and taking his title. I’ve made no attempt to hide that I deeply desire a King(ston) Edward heel champion run with his “family” as his enforcers.

Kingston has made the most of his chances thus far in AEW. He debuted less than six months ago as a surprise challenge for Cody’s TNT championship and impressed so much that he was signed later that week. Even this program with Moxley came by happenstance, only getting the slot after Lance Archer had to be sidelined due to a Covid exposure.

Eddie stepped to the plate and began terrorizing Jon Moxley. That this was Eddie’s last shot, a shot he may have gotten much sooner had his deathmatch buddy Moxley not become Dean Ambrose, and left his friend to struggle for himself on the deathmatch indies.

With everything on the line and “I Quit” being the only finish allowed, these two put on a clinic in brutality at Full Gear. Ten minutes in, both men are bleeding, Moxley from the forehead, Eddie, more disturbingly, from the mouth from presumably internal injuries. Eddie Kingston doesn’t sell pain like a pro wrestler, he sells it like frustration, disappointment that it will now be that much harder to punish his opponent.

We get the full gamut here. Barbed wire bat, steel chair power bombs, thumbtacks. RUBBING ALCOHOL IN THE WOUND! The only cruelty missing is a barbed wire wedgie. (If that has ever happened PLEASE send that link to @JesseDraham on Twitter).

Poor Eddie is beaten long before he says the words. After hurting his wrist, his multiple attempts at submission are all too weak to clinch with enough force. He sits holding his limp wrist as Moxley screams behind him, and Eddie offers only a dejected middle finger from a badly swollen wrist. Moxley, arm wrapped in barbed wire, wraps in the bulldog sleeper.

The sad closeup of Eddie shows him bleeding from the mouth. He looks pleadingly at ref Remsburg, clearly in less pain physically than emotionally of what he’s gonna have to do. He didn’t have what it took, and with damn near tears in his eyes and blood on his lip, he cries out sadly, “I quit…I quit…” The uncrowned King, has been vanquished…

“Wrestling tragedy” unfortunately has so much negative real-life connotation. This, however, was a masterfully told tragedy in the squared circle, rather than on Dark Side of the Ring. The tough street punk got a chance to take it as far as he could, only to find out he couldn’t take it to the top.

I can’t wait to see where Eddie goes from here, as he refuses Moxley’s helping hand and slinks to the back, as much out of pain as humiliation.

But just as one challenger departs the stage, a new foe arises. The heir apparent, Kenny Omega, reclaiming his singles dominance, head-on collision course with Madman Mox.

God Bless professional wrestling.

Follow Jesse @jessedraham on Twitter and Insta and send him barbed wire wedgie matches. Listen to I Hate Infinite Jest Podcast and watch his comedy videos on YouTube @MrJezzicho

     

Share this post:

You May Also Like

AEW
AEW Dynamite Pops & Botches Recaps & Reviews
Pops & Botches: AEW Dynamite – 10.06.21
AEW
AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Pops & Botches
Pops & Botches: AEW Dynamite – 07.14.2021